Blockchain

Microsoft Bets That Bitcoin-Style Blockchains Will Be Big Business - MIT Technology Review. Earlier this week a consortium of 11 giant banks including UBS and Credit Suisse announced that they had completed their first trial run of the idea of using software inspired by the digital currency Bitcoin to move assets around more efficiently.

A Bitcoin-Style Currency for Central Banks - MIT Technology Review. The digital currency Bitcoin was designed to be independent of any government—a feature that also limits its mainstream appeal.

Now researchers have invented a Bitcoin-like system that could make digital cash more practical by allowing a central bank such as the Federal Reserve to control it. The system, RSCoin, was designed by researchers Sarah Meiklejohn and George Danezis at University College London, at the suggestion of the U.K.’s central bank, the Bank of England. The bank began researching the idea of issuing digital currency early last year. Ben Broadbent, the bank’s deputy governor, said this month that it could make retail payments more efficient and the financial system as a whole more resilient.

Why Bitcoin Could Be Much More Than a Currency - MIT Technology Review. Boosters of Bitcoin commonly call the digital currency the future of money.

But even if it doesn’t turn out to be, a growing group of investors and entrepreneurs is convinced that the idea at the center of Bitcoin could revolutionize industries that rely on digital record keeping. It might replace conventional methods of keeping track of valuable information like contracts, intellectual-property rights, and even online voting results. Bitcoin’s real promise, they say, is not the currency. It’s the underlying technology, in which thousands of computers in a distributed network use cryptographic techniques to create a permanent, public record of every single Bitcoin transaction that has ever occurred (see “What Bitcoin Is and Why It Matters”).

The World’s Largest Shipping Company Trials Blockchain to Track Cargo - MIT Technology Review. Moving millions of gigantic metal boxes around the world is hard work—but circumnavigating the associated paperwork can be even harder.

So the world’s largest shipping company has been trialing how it can make use of the digital technology behind the world’s most notorious cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, to make it a little easier. Bitcoin is built on what's called the blockchain: a digital ledger where each line is recorded based on the previous one using cryptographic techniques, making it almost impossible to modify at a later date. The ledger isn’t stored centrally, and multiple parties can agree by consensus that the details contained within it are accurate—which means that it's in everyone's interest to keep it so. That makes it perfect for recording financial transactions, but also doing plenty else, too.
Bettina Warburg: How the blockchain will radically transform the economy.

Blockchain Documentary. Identity Management per Blockchain: Ein neuer Hype? - Innovationsblog der DZ BANK Gruppe. A Film by Manuel Stagars - The Blockchain And Us Video Documentary - Released in Full - Blockchain News. When the Wright brothers invented the airplane in 1903, it was hard to imagine there would be over 500,000 people travelling in the air at any point in time today.

In 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto invented Bitcoin and the Blockchain. For the first time in history, his invention made it possible to send money around the globe without banks, governments or any other intermediaries. Satoshi is a mystery character, and just like the Wright brothers, he solved an unsolvable problem. Whenever this happens, it inspires incredible innovation.
The G20 Countries Should Investigate Blockchain Technologies to Build an Inclusive, Transparent, and Accountable Digital Economy for All - Blockchain News.

The Think 20 Engagement Group via their G20 Insights Platform that offers policy proposals to the G20, has reported that Blockchain technologies hold the key to building an inclusive global digital economy that is auditably secure and transparently accountable to the world’s citizens.

The G20 (or G-20 or Group of Twenty) is an international forum for the governments and central bank governors from 20 major economies. It was founded in 1999 with the aim of studying, reviewing, and promoting high-level discussion of policy issues pertaining to the promotion of international financial stability. According to a recent policy brief (Download full Policy Brief as PDF), they say Blockchains can play a critical role in strengthening economic resilience while ensuring the global economy works to the benefit of all. The policy paper adds that G20 countries must prioritize investment in emerging technologies with the potential to further both objectives at once. 1. A. B.
IBM Blockchain Car Lease Demo. Using blockchain to improve data management in the public sector. It’s not just for financial institutions; government agencies can use this digital ledger technology to protect trusted records and simplify interactions with citizens.

An important function of government is to maintain trusted information about individuals, organizations, assets, and activities. Local, regional, and national agencies are charged with maintaining records that include, for instance, birth and death dates or information about marital status, business licensing, property transfers, or criminal activity. Managing and using these data can be complicated, even for advanced governments.

Some records exist only in paper form, and if changes need to be made in official registries, citizens often must appear in person to do so. Individual agencies tend to build their own silos of data and information-management protocols, which preclude other parts of the government from using them.
Blockchain - TeleTrusT – Bundesverband IT-Sicherheit e.V. - Pioneers in IT security. - www.teletrust.de. 21 Companies Leveraging Blockchain for Identity Management and Authentication. February 13, 2017 By : Elena Mesropyan Among the variety of non-financial use cases, blockchain technology can be applied to identity applications in areas such as digital identities, passports, e-residency, birth certificates, wedding certificates, IDs, online account logins, etc.

Creating an identity on blockchain can give individuals greater control over who has their personal information and how they access it. By combining the decentralized blockchain principle with identity verification, a digital ID can be created to act as a digital watermark which can be assigned to every online transaction of any asset.
The True Cost of Bitcoin Transactions - Money and State. It seems the Bitcoin community is not correctly tallying the true cost of Bitcoin transactions.

As bitcoin, ethereum and other cryptocurrencies have become more popular, we’ve gotten more and more requests from people seeking suggestions for how to learn about the technology.

In pulling together this list of starter articles, blog posts, books and courses, we’ve found that most people are initially willing to invest about 30–45 minutes to learn about cryptocurrencies. That can then ignite enough curiosity to invest another 2–3 hours — and then they’re off to the races. Feel free to share this list with others. Over the last year, members of the Digital Currency Initiative have sent it to several hundred people — from finance ministers to longtime developers interested in the cryptocurrency space and, as a result, have seen them change their policy position or even change jobs. This list of articles is by no means exhaustive; it’s a living document.
Blockchain Demo. The Blockchain is the new Google. The following is an excerpt from The Business Blockchain: Promise, Practice, and Application of the Next Internet Technology by William Mougayar.

In it, Mougayar waxes ecstatic about the future of distributed databases. At its core, the blockchain is a technology that permanently records transactions in a way that cannot be later erased but can only be sequentially updated, in essence keeping a never-ending historical trail. This seemingly simple functional description has gargantuan implications.
Papers – OIX. Papers support 2016-11-07T16:41:46+00:00 Open Identity Exchange (OIX) White Papers focus on current issues and opportunities in emerging identity markets. OIX white papers are driven by the needs of the members but the goal of each white paper is that they stand on their own to deliver value to the identity ecosystem as whole. OIX White Papers are always pragmatic, transparent and take one of two perspectives: a retrospective report on the outcome of a given project or pilot or a prospective discussion on a current issue or opportunity.

OIX White Papers are authored by independent domain experts and are intended as summaries for a general business audience. Alpha Digital Identity Across Borders: Opening a Bank Account in Another EU Country. International Identity Law & Policy Workshop – OIX. The Open Identity Exchange, along with the American Bar Association’s Identity Management Legal Taskforce and the World Bank, hosted a workshop on January 14, 2015 in Washington D.C. with the objective of discussing the main concerns surrounding the adoption of identity management law and policy, helping to develop a common language around internet identity. Attendees included industry leaders in identity and relevant regulatory bodies. The key theme reiterated throughout the event was the importance of focusing on outcome-based legislation. Participants voiced concern that legislation prescribing a specific technical process to implement identity standards would hinder innovation and ultimately prevent the success of a new legal regime.

The group was briefed on three main efforts to develop identity management-specific policy: Experts involved in each effort shared their opinions on how attendees could utilize their expertise to aid these efforts.
BlockCypher and ShoCard partner on blockchain-based identity management. Nov. 8, 2016 BlockCypher, a blockchain web services provider, and ShoCard, which provides identity solutions on blockchains, have partnered to provide the market’s first identity management solution that scales across public and permissioned blockchains, according to a press release.

Identity management challenges have increased with rising hacker attacks on centralized identity databases. Numerous companies within the same industry duplicate efforts to maintain identity information for audits, operational purposes and regulatory compliance. These efforts cost organizations hundreds of millions of dollars a year in labor and redundant systems. "Increasing security costs, the pervasive use of social security numbers as universal identifiers, and the fact that policy is often multiple steps behind criminals leads to an identity crisis that screams for a new way of protecting identity," said Catheryne Nicholson, BlockCypher CEO.
Blockchain tech powers identity management. The interest in the blockchain has exploded within the virtual currency world, as the world's largest banks begin to tackle the technology behind bitcoin.

Although this trend has not been without controversy, other virtual currency companies are starting to engage with the blockchain, even creating new forms of it and crafting new apps. Some innovators, including I/O Digital, Ascribe GmbH and ShoCard are working with the blockchain to create new technological tools in the area of identity management.
How blockchain technology disrupts securities registration. By Chris Horlacher As the world of finance moves further into the depths of digitization, new technologies are looking to overhaul long-existing, often analog, systems. Registration of securities, for example, was handled with paper-based systems until recently when U.S. securities regulators began requiring new companies to list securities digitally using technologies like the Direct Registration System (DRS) provided by Computershare.

Computershare states that digital methods of securities registration offer more reliability than their analog predecessors. "DRS simplifies and streamlines share ownership and investor relations," the company said in its marketing material, adding, the technology "eliminates the risk of loss, theft or destruction of certificates.
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Does digital identity need blockchain technology?
When is a blockchain not a blockchain? – Naked Security.

Its Blockchain. Its blockchain - Building Global Blockchain Community. Blockchain GovHack - Blockchain Technology Resources. BITCRIME. Orlowski oth - Recherche Google. David Birch - How to use Identity & the Blockchain. Applying Blockchain to Identity - Chris Skinner's blog. ShoCard. Digital Transformation: How Blockchain Will Change Organizations. What if there were an internet of value — a secure platform, ledger, or database where buyers and sellers could store and exchange value without the need for traditional intermediaries?
Reboot the bank's boardroom NOW! - Chris Skinner's blog. There is more to blockchain than moving money. It has the potential to transform our lives - here's how. Blockchain is well-known as a method of exchanging assets, but in future it could also be used for - among other things - welfare distribution, secure voting, land-title transfers, even vaccine distribution.

How blockchain is likely to transform IT and business. Episode 5: Blockchain - The Great Disruptor. Episode 4: BlockChain - Explain it like I am 5. The Blockchain Explained. Bitcoin might fail but the blockchain is here to stay - Full WIRED Retail talk. Blockchain for dummies. Blockchain Explained, What is Blockchain?
How Blockchain could change finance.